The Maiden and the Spider
by Sigmu
Summary: Tiffany recovers from her injuries and Edward finds himself feeling confused over the girl he had confessed his feelings to before she went off to battle. My OC's Tiffany Muffet and Edward Spider after story from my fic The True Love Loophole. Warning: it would make more sense if you read the original story first, and there is mentions of lgbt content in this.
1. Chapter 1

The maiden and the spider

XXX

Her body felt far too delicate and vulnerable for her liking, she wondered if this was what it felt like for creatures who molted their old skin as they grew, fearfully hiding from hungry teeth and sharp grasping claws until their exoskeletons hardened and their defenses grew back.

In the space between drug muddled dreams and wakefulness Tiffany dreamed herself dragging her far too soft and vulnerable body to hide beneath an upturned goblet of glass, gold, and precious gems, her injuries slowing her down as she drags, claws, pleads her way until she is safely inside just narrowly missing a shadowy black tendril aiming to spear her body right through-"

Tiffany wakes with a start, breathing deep as she surveys her surroundings, laying perfectly still so as not to give way her position to predators.

Her room in the Charming palace is as beautiful and bright as always, light spilling in through tall windows to bounce off of dozens of mirrors dispersed all around the room illuminating baby blue painted walls and eggshell white Franco-mage molding on the walls and ceiling, a light breeze from the balcony brought in the smell of flowers and summer warmth to her nose as the moving air cooled her sweat dampened face.

It was different from what she was used to; brighter and less saturated in magic than her dorm at Ever After High, where even the non-magic users could feel a sense of _some_ _kind_ of magic in the air. And it was more quiet and airy than her parent's city house where the sounds from the street could be easily heard from her bedroom window and where the slight smell of alcohol and (illegal) seaman's wick smoke permeated the fancy wallpaper and carpets.

The atmosphere here was foreign to her, and yet for some reason she had never felt safer in her entire life.

Guilt gnawed at her gut when she thought about her old home and parents, the feeling of being a bad daughter warring with the defiant rebellious side of her that was relieved that she was safely tucked under the Charming family's wing, for once in a very long while having someone there to help take care of her for once during a time when she was injured or sick.

It had been over a week and her parents had yet to even call her, no word had reached her about them, but then again she hadn't gathered the courage to ask after them yet. In the past it hadn't been uncommon for one of the staff to ask after her for her parents while she was at her uncle's…

Tiffany tried for a bleak moment to remember the last time one of her parents had called her uncle or the Spider family in person while she was with them, hex, she tried to remember if there had ever been a time when either her mother or father had sobered up enough to pick up a mirrorphone and leave a measly message for her while she was at school.

She decided to stop thinking about it right about then, her mouth tasted like old cotton and she was thirsty, she should focus on that, on taking care of herself more.

"Uhgmmm." Tiffany whined sticking out her parched tongue at the heart monitor by her bed, it was kind of addicting watching the little green line move and the numbers change, occasionally there would be a little chirp from the machine indicating that all was still well.

"Hey." A kindly soft voice spoke to her left. "Do you want some water?"

Tiffany perked up at the sight of Dexter looking over at her from the desk situated by her bedside, she could see Pico Paco peer up at the boy from his little nest situated on said desk, the girl nodded gratefully at the boy who promptly poured her a glass and assisted her head up so that she could drink the cool liquid which quenched her drying throat and mouth, Tiffany swore had never tasted water so delicious before.

It seemed to be commonplace now, for somebody from the Charming family to be there either by her bedside or somewhere in one of the rooms nearby, even though her family's old head maid and lady's companion had been assigned to stay in the room adjoining hers so that if she needed them they could rush in.

Dexter felt her forehead after she was finished with the water. "Your fever's gone way down since the other day." He observed. "Promise to try to keep it that way for me?"

Tiffany nodded feeling a little like a child but being far too exasperated at the fact that of all the injuries that she had sustained it was the Evil Queen's blasted poisonous bite that had sent her insides all topsy turvy, it had stayed in her bloodstream for too long landing her with a wicked headache and a fever as her body fought it. It complicated her initial predicted recovery because the healers were wary to operate on her knee while she was so sick, and to top the whole terrible situation off was that the magical poison seemed to be designed to not only screw up a person's insides but to also seek out physical hurts and worsened them by attacking the damaged tissue and bone, thus screwing Tiffany's leg up to the point where they were going to have to replace the entire joint, and rendering her hands completely useless, the one that had been merely sprained was covered black and blue with bruises and ached sharply from stretched ligaments, and her broken hand now had to be kept completely immobile.

Tiffany didn't remember much when they had her under so much pain medication she couldn't see right, but she did recall her hands, back, and legs feeling like they had been set on fire and that she had cried helplessly in pain until they had sedated her and concocted a risky, on the fly, IV formula that pumped her blood with some sort of Bleeding Rebel Heart extract and ultimately saved her life.

"How's Daring doing with this?" Tiffany asked a little worriedly, the older boy had been bitten way more times than she had. "He's hasn't gotten worse like me has he?"

"No, just a mild fever every so often." Dexter assured smoothing back Tiffany's blond hair, much in the same way his other siblings and parents had been doing with her lately. "He still can't use his arm but he had gotten treatment way sooner than you did, and that bite of yours had been way too close to your kidneys so it's only logical that you would be fairing way worse." The boy sighed gently laying his hand on her shoulder.

"You'll be fine though." He promised. "We'll make sure of it."

Tiffany smiled slightly at him, even though she was in a strange place, broken up in places, ill, scared, and feeling overall out of place she felt… oddly comforted for the time being as she let herself doze off once again.

XXX

Edward had somehow found it in himself to forgive Tiffany rather quickly in her opinion (for going off and getting herself nearly killed she had expected him to be more mad at her), dutifully staying by her side as she was transported to the Charming's Kingdom, and being there by her bedside practically every day since. He looked like a wreck those first few days where she was all hazy under the influence of pain medication, and sick from the fever, and in pain from the poison.

Darling had confessed that during the worst night of her fever he had nearly completely convinced himself that she was a stone's throw away from keeling over until one of the healers had took him aside and had given him a firm talking to, the princess-turned knight didn't know what had been said but it had been enough for the boy to scrape himself together and endure 'til her fever broke and everyone was breathing easier, assured that Tiffany would live.

She lost track of how many games of virtual go-fish on a mirror pad (she could move only three fingers on her sprained hand so playing with actual cards was out and even then Pico Paco had to act as a surrogate for her fingers and hands) they had played once Tiffany had gotten just better enough to be awake long enough to be bored and needed something to take her mind off of the upcoming surgery she was to go through, the healers were going to operate on her broken hand and leg simultaneously, and after that was physical therapy and perhaps two more surgeries after that until they were satisfied that they had put the blonde all back together.

They didn't talk about the confession they had before the battle, Tiffany too cautious about what the future was going to throw at her and Edward seemed to be just as keen to let whatever they were at the moment to go unnamed until a more appropriate time.

"Do you like it here?" Edward asked her the evening before her surgery, which was going to take place in the middle of the night for some reason that only the healers really understood.

"At the Charming's?" She asked blinking confusingly at the random question. "Well they're treating me real well, their home is a beautiful place to recuperate in, and… I have to admit that it was probably a better idea to have come here since my parents would not have had the foggiest clue as to what to do back when I was sick a few days ago, hex they can barely take care of themselves when they get a hangover, me being that ill would've stupefied them." Tiffany chuckled imagining her parents arguing with a healer over the matter, knowing them they'd be insisting than some brandy in milk would solve all Tiffany's troubles.

In response Edward leaned over to softly kiss Tiffany's temple. "You find the most worrying things funny or normal." He declared quietly. "Hopefully staying here long enough will help you out with that."

It would be quite sometime later before Tiffany understood what the boy had meant.

XXX

Physical therapy sucked. If she didn't need it so badly and if it weren't clearly working Tiffany would've refused to even associate herself with any relation to it, even it's name she would shun if she could.

At least she was well enough to be wheeled around the palace in a chair, the change in scenery was a god's send for Tiffany, who was beginning to worry she was going to get cabin fever in another two weeks if she had to stay in the same room for that long. Tiffany lived for those small tastes of freedom after her post-PT nap.

"It's warm enough for a detour through outside east footpath miss, would you like to give it a try?" Tiffany's Lady's companion asked as she adjusted Tiffany's shall and selected a lap quilt for the girl to keep her warm. The healers had her on blood thinners, which made the girl susceptible to getting chilled easily.

"That sounds fantastic Tam." Tiffany smiled gratefully at the older blonde woman.

"Jane if you could please run ahead and inform their highnesses and the youngest Lord and Lady Charmings that the little Miss is on their way?" Tam asked Tiffany's former maid, the younger woman nodding before taking her leave.

Tiffany breathed deeply as they began moving, intending to enjoy the moment of peace before joining the Charmings as they all watched the official sentencing of the former Headmaster of Ever After High.

"I can't imagine how difficult this is going to be for Raven." Tiffany sighed laying her head back. "I know that the Headmaster was difficult to deal with but to have to be the one to hand out his punishment, her own grandfather… it's gotta be heartbreaking for her, even if she doesn't manage to show it in public."

"Well Miss that's the thing about blood relatives, sometimes it means nothing at all, you can bargain and hope all you want but that does not mean that those related to you will treat you kindly, or even want anything to do with you at all. That man obviously didn't want to take responsibility that he was a father and practically bullied his only granddaughter, because of that he's missed out knowing how much of a decent person Lady Raven has turned out to be… and perhaps, if the speculation on the news feeds are correct, then he is at least a little bit to be blamed for how his daughter turned out." Tam sniffed speaking about the headmaster the same way she would a bad smell.

"I reckon Miss that good folks who have dealt with family that treat them horribly have to sever their ties with them or risk losing their minds. It's not an easy thing Lady Raven is doing, but it's the right thing for both herself and the world at large. And maybe that man will actually finally see what he has lost because of his actions."

Tiffany tilted her head in thought, the younger blonde had a feeling that there was more to the story than that… but that still did not excuse the entirety of the Headmaster's behavior.

"Raven is usually good at doing what needs to be done fairly. Whatever she's decided on… I think he should be thankful for, because she is not cruel, she'll make sure at the very least he spends the rest of his life in accommodations that will be kind to his age. As for the rest… he's got a lot to be ashamed about and a part of me hopes that he pays for letting that mirror stay on campus." Though not a big part of her, Tiffany had been there, she had seen and heard how much he loved Raven's grandmother, how he fought to protect Raven from her mother. Whatever wrongs he may have committed in the past he made up for most of them on that day.

Despite her understanding Tiffany still found herself feeling… depressed that those past wrongs had landed her in her current injured state. I didn't feel fair that anything that had happened that day had to happen at all.

"I'm glad that I'm getting better." Tiffany admitted looking dejectedly at her bound hands, closing her eyes indulgently at the feel of the sun and warm summer air on her skin.

"We are glad too Miss. So very glad." Tam swore fiercely chancing to bend down and kiss the top of Tiffany's head, a rare show of physical affection that the older blonde showed only when they were alone and when Tiffany seemed to need cheering up.

Tiffany sat in the middle of the large Victorian couch, the remaining Charming siblings on either side of her and their parents sitting in winged back chairs on either side of the couch as they all watched the event on a large golden-framed mirror.

All Tiffany could see were the reddened scars that Raven let show, the pain in her expressive eyes even as she schooled her expression into a stony stoicism (though a big part of that had to do with the camera focusing so closely on Raven practically first thing when she, Apple, and Daring made their entrance).

Tiffany had a small flashback back to that fateful day, of the moment _where_ _Raven had been suspended limply in the air and blood and liquid silver metal had burst through the witch's skin-_

Dexter and Darling had a similar reaction, the boy reaching his arm around the both of them as Tiffany half hid her face into his jacket and Darling curled around Tiffany, one hand reaching out to meet Dexter's in front of Tiffany's clavicle.

Daring was a strong presence by Raven's side, coming to stand beside the witch's throne, looking handsome and powerful despite his obviously bound injured arm (which was also zoomed in on by the camera).

The camera turned to Apple next, the princess's face hinting at a hot protectiveness as she scanned her clear blue eyes over those present, taking Raven's hand possessively as she seated herself on the throne beside the witch's, an exact identical copy to the first throne to show that Raven and Apple now shared equal power.

All three of them were dressed up gorgeously, being both beautiful and intimidating at the same time. Showing all the realms that they were a united front and that their word would be law once spoken.

Time seemed to both speed up and crawl along after the former Headmaster was brought in by armed guard, and set to sit in a chair at the center of the hall. The old man looked visibly ill at the sight of Raven's revealed injuries, he covered his mouth, as he looked at her, seemingly unable to take what he was seeing before his eyes.

The former Headmaster's brother, Giles, could barely be seen from his place directly below and to the side of the ancient stone stepped platform elevating the thrones just enough above the guards and the prisoner below to give off an element of power while giving a clear view of those who were on it, all Tiffany could make out was his wild hair, the blonde wondered what the man was thinking at that moment.

Raven's face twitched but she turned her head towards Apple, before any emotion could be deciphered, to give her wife a brief nod to confirm that she was to go ahead.

The sentencing went along quicker than Tiffany had expected, usually these kind of things were long and drawn out, leaving the spectators to begin dozing in their seats by the middle of it, but as Apple and Daring said their parts they were stoic and to the point, their tones leaving no room for arguments.

Raven was the quickest out of the three of them, she was also the most emotional, though her tone wasn't at all dramatic, there was enough there to clearly tell that she was upset, though it just seemed to make her words all the more powerful as she sharply listed out the old man's crimes with a force that reminded Tiffany of a hammer driving nails into the wood of a coffin, when she handed down punishment her voice shook slightly but there was enough strength in her clear, confident words and the piercing way she stared at the old man, not looking away from his for a moment, as if she was speaking to him through her gaze alone, _that_ was what seemed to move the ones gathered around her the most, what moved _Tiffany_ the most, so much so that when the witch had finished speaking Tiffany had to remember to breath after it was over.

Oddly enough, before he was led away, the former Headmaster seemed… calmer, looking at Raven as if he was… proud of her, even going as far as to give her a tiny smile and an approving nod over his shoulder before he left the room.

Tiffany wasn't the only one who had noticed.

"Figures the only time he's actually approving of her is when she has to go through the nerve-racking experience of facing and sentencing the grandfather who never took responsibility for either her mother or for her." Jane spat quietly as she looked at Raven's almost sorrowful expression before she, her wife, and Daring stood up to leave the room.

The Charming family gave each other looks that Tiffany was unable to decipher before turning off the mirror.

"She'll make a fine king one day." King Charming observed lightly. "And Daring had seemed to have been doing quite well himself for his first role in a public sentencing, remember children; all the classes in the world can't completely prepare you for becoming a ruler, only experience and having allies you trust can do that."

Tiffany blinked when she found his gaze lingering on her as well as he spoke, she didn't know if it was the tone in his voice or the look he was giving her but she found herself tentatively nodding along like the rest of his children.

XXX

There was a change; a shift in atmosphere in the way the Charming family was treating Tiffany, as far as the blonde girl was concerned she was an outsider, a pity case for them to nurture back to health before sending her on her way, most likely to stay with her uncle (who visited as often as his job would allow) or the Spiders, seeing as how her parents still hadn't called or visited, meaning that they weren't going to come take her back to the townhouse anytime soon (Tiffany wondered if they had decided to waste the rest of their fortune away on a cruse or something)…

Only that wasn't how the _family_ was treating her… actually it felt as though the Charming family and staff was… expecting her to stay longer than her recovery… much longer.

It had taken a while for Tiffany to put two and two together since the Charmings had always treated her like a permanent resident from the start, but it wasn't until King Charming had casually mentioned that he and his wife were arranging for the Charming siblings and herself to have some private lessons until he and the other monarchs could figure out where was a safe place to send their children to school in order to gain the education they needed to run a kingdom… that Tiffany realized that something was up.

The idea that her parents weren't coming back for her was a vaguely abstract concept but it stayed at the edges of her thoughts during the day, and distracted her in the night after she would wake from a nightmare about a shadowy and naked Evil Queen coming to get her in her bed.

It was easier to just get by every day and mentally pretend that it was all a temporary thing, even though Tiffany was starting to suspect that it wasn't, she liked life at the Charming castle and she was fine admitting to herself that whatever drama her parents were pulling, whether they would bother to try to contact her at all, she was fine with not having to address the issue of them yet, because she was not ready to know what was going on with them.

"You haven't asked about your parents." Edward's mama, always blunt, points out one day as she sits by Tiffany under a tree, watching Edward and the Charming siblings fly kites while the other adults were busy at work.

"I'm not ready to know what's going on with them yet." Tiffany admits just as bluntly, having come to peace with this fact about herself by this point. "They haven't called or sent word to me, and everyone seems to be walking on eggshells whenever someone thinks I'm going to ask about them… I'm not ready to know what's going on but… I'll be staying here long after my recovery, won't I?" The blonde asks the woman beside her.

Mama Spider sighs heavily and runs one of her six hands through her hair. "Yeah, you will." She confirms. "Are you going to be ok with that?"

Tiffany hums in thought, waving and smiling back to Daring who flashes her a wide grin as he controls his kite one handedly and still better than Dexter and Edward.

"I think I'm getting used to the idea." Tiffany says contently.

XXX

Tiffany woke up from another dream about the Evil Queen to find Daring sitting at the desk beside her bed and glumly petting a sleeping Pico Paco in the middle of the night.

Tiffany turned over in her bed; it had been a few weeks since the doctors had removed her casts, and while she was still fragile and weaker than she'd like, she could turn over and sleep how she used to on her side, and _that_ was something Tiffany reveled doing whenever possible.

She regarded Daring for a moment before speaking. "Hey." She murmured sleepily.

He startled. "Tiffany, I'm so sorry for intruding-"

"It's fine." Tiffany said honestly, knowingly. "It's nice sometimes when there's somebody there when I wake up after having a bad dream."

Understanding and pity flash across the boy's face. "Do you wish to talk about it?" He asks kindly, his deep voice rumbling something warm in Tiffany's chest.

Tiffany points to the end of the bed. "The Evil Queen was standing right there and she was naked." The girl says. "It's not my scariest nightmare about her but it always wakes me up, and sometimes when Tam lets me bath by myself it feels like the Evil Queen is behind me when I try to wash my hair or when I don't have my back to something so I can see everything around me."

Daring blinked staring at the end of Tiffany's bed as if he could see the Evil Queen standing there too. "I've been having similar dreams." He admits softly. "It has… I always feel dirty when I wake up… when I am alone and that image of her is the only thing my mind wants to conjure up, I knew that her… immodesty would haunt me at the time of the battle but I never imagined…"

"Who woulda thunk that she could cause so many of us who had been there to be scarred for life by practically flashing us all." Tiffany grumbled bitterly.

"Many of us?" Daring asked.

"We're not the only ones who've been having nightmares about her naked." Tiffany sighs as she worries the edge of her blanket with her fingers. "Edward's been talking with a bunch of other people and some of them have confessed to him about it. Hunter says that he's taken to watching Ashlynn as much as she allows him to because the sight of her seems to help scare the images away… and a few other boys have complained that their "dad's" dirty magazines have almost become their worst enemy because all the pictures of the naked women keep reminding them of the Evil Queen, and one girl says that she's afraid to undress or even use the powder room unless it's completely dark or there is very low light because she feels like she's being watched."

Daring scratched the side of his neck slightly awkwardly. "I don't know if that makes me feel better or not." He sighs looking a little blue.

Tiffany has a moment of brief panic, wondering if she had maybe pushed the boy too far out of his comfort zone, charming princes after all were supposed to be seen as virtuous as their princess counterparts, so, offhandedly, admitting that Tiffany could sort of tell that he was struggling with matters of a particular boy nature, it was a suspicion she'd been having for a while seeing as how his usual interest in young women overall had seemed to diminish considerably and he got this spooked look whenever they had to attend a formal ball (Tiffany being allowed to attend such things too for increasingly longer periods of time until she got too tired and had to be brought back to bed, she felt honored though, being considered for such things) and an older busty woman with a slightly risqué dress (up to a certain age they always seemed to be busty and liked to wear borderline indecent gowns) walked up to him for a chat, the spooked look was always particularly severe when the woman seemed to be… a little overly predator-like or cougar-ish, especially if that woman had dark hair, then he would usually use Tiffany as an excuse to politely runaway ( _excuse me miss but Miss Tiffany is looking a little pale, I must go and check up on her_ ) which Tiffany didn't mind since she felt a little out of her depth with functions featuring polite society (her parents had _never_ taken her to any of _their_ parties) and he seemed more than willing to give her a crash course in polite etiquette and how to read between the lines with people's conversation to see what was really going on around her.

Tiffany was about to apologize when Daring gently reached for her hand, her fingers and palm were so tiny against his, it was almost insane; he seemed to think this too because he was immensely gentle when he lightly trailed his fingers over hers, he looked pained when he turned the appendage over and ran his fingers over the surgical scars trailing over the back of her hand.

"I do feel a little better knowing that I'm not… that it's not just me but… I do not feel at all well with so many of our classmates going through the same thing." The boy confesses awkwardly covering Tiffany's hand completely in his both his own (it would be a long time still before he could move his damaged arm and hand properly, and there was still a chance that her never would) Tiffany could make out the gnarled scars that branded the skin of his hand and all the way up his arm until his t-shirt hid the rest on his shoulder.

"That was my response too." Relieved Tiffany smiled at him briefly before her lips melted back into a rueful pout. "Part of me wants to ask that psychiatrist your dad's having us see if I can do anything to make the images stop… but… um…"

"You're afraid that he'll take it the wrong way." Daring said knowingly his blue eyes meeting hers in understanding.

"I don't want him diagnosing me as a pervert or something." Tiffany said, although she knew that Daring probably felt that particular fear more keenly than she did.

"But we're not." Daring said with conviction while shaking his head. "I don't know why we keep being haunted by that particular image of her even after she is dead and gone but…" He looked at her then, there was something utterly vulnerable and strange about his eyes but for some reason Tiffany understood that vulnerability, suspected that her own eyes were making the same emotion.

"I thought I was going to die." He confessed, his tone thick and shaking. "She had Raven and I thought I was going to die as a failure at protecting my friend. I- I was always told that only the most charming of princes could defeat whatever foes and villains came their way but… I wasn't able to last more than a few minutes against her, none of my training was able to prepare me for… _that_."

"You were trained to defeat fairytale villains and dragons and was taught to rule a kingdom Daring." Tiffany pointed out. "The Evil Queen wasn't going by any story guidelines or sense of honor, she was actually _trying_ to kill everybody to fulfill her own twisted ambitions. And It didn't help matters any due to her being crazy powerful and poisonous to boot." The girl grimaced thinking about the bite on her side and how much trouble it caused. "I think that it was a combination of your training and your unwillingness to give up that kept you alive and let you be here with us, I'm really glad for that 'cause you're a pretty cool friend and a kind-of big-brother figure to have." She admitted quietly, timidly.

Daring seemed to melt a little at her words, a goofy little smile gracing his features. "I'm glad that you survived too." He told her, his eyes misting over slightly. "And I'm so happy that you're getting better, the rest of the family too, we all are so grateful that you were able to pull through."

Tiffany felt happy at the boy's words, despite the creeping feeling that she might be, maybe, included as a part of Daring's family too.

She brushed that silly thought off as she listened as Daring regaled her with stories of stars, heroes, and grand adventure until she fell into a blessedly dreamless sleep.

XXX

A/n: Chapter Two coming soon…


	2. Chapter 2

She had been too quiet when she had been sick. Tiffany was never that quiet, not even when she was asleep in class. She always had an air about her that practically filled the room and even though it made no physical sound, it was loud and larger than life. Just the opposite of how she was when the curse had bitten her, all quiet and still like cold stone sometimes and acting like a frightened injured animal other times, trying to make herself appear smaller in that big bed the Charming's had put her in. When she had acted like that it was impossible not to acknowledge that something was horribly, sickenly wrong.

Those had been the scariest days of his life, between that horrible afternoon where that horrible villain had sent her creatures to hunt them all and Tiffany had _left_ him behind to go and fight where he couldn't be at all certain whether she'd come back alive or not and the days where Tiffany had been so sick she barely recognized him those few moments when she was lucid…

He had been so scared that he was going to lose her.

Being so physically broken up was hard for her, he could tell, feeling so helpless and stir-crazy being confined to one place while she knitted herself back together must have been absolute torture, he could tell that behind her tired smiles and soft words of trying to stay positive about things… it _hurt_ her being unable to move or take care of herself.

He couldn't help but feel helpless too as he watched her heal.

At the very least he held some comfort in knowing that those sorry excuses of parents would not be darkening Tiffany's door anytime soon ( _not ever again_ if Edward had anything to say about it) the Charmings had made certain of that thank gods.

The girl was better off with the Charmings anyway, sure they were royalty and Tiffany had spent most of her life trying to distance herself from being at all royal-like, to prevent any attempts to be groomed to be married into a richer family by mentioned sorry excuses of money grubbing parents, but they were decent royalty with a reassuring grasp of what a family was supposed to be like.

And Tiffany had the Spiders as a family too, his mothers adored Tiffany just as much as she adored them, they _got_ each other in a way, and sometimes it almost seemed as though Tiffany was more of a Spider than a Muffet.

He just hoped that she'd forgive them all for cutting her birth parents out of her life for good when she eventually found out. It wasn't exactly an easy subject to swallow either, because their daughter had been practically on death's door and they had been too angry at her to even go see her, in their minds it had been her fault for the fact that social services, and later the police were all over them for their crimes of child and staff endangerment, possession of illegal substances, shady things dealing with money, and… something to do with having an ancient mummy in their house…

The Charmings had attempted to be fair by offering visitation rights and update news to them on their daughter's condition along with the news that they would be officially taking the girl in as their foster child, but it never even got that far because Lord Muffet had practically thrown Tiffany's disinheritance papers in Queen and King Charming's faces and stormed out of the room

Very distasteful people those two.

Edward knew that eventually they would have to tell Tiffany that her parents weren't coming for her, that the Charmings wanted to adopt her, because as time marched on she had grown on them to the point where King and Queen Charming were recognizing her as their youngest child, the three Charming siblings were already swearing up, down, and sideways that Tiffany was their little sister, and even people outside of the family saw Tiffany as a bonafide Charming. With so many people thinking about her in this way it was going to come out eventually!

Although Tiffany probably already suspected that something was up seeing as how she was slowly starting to be introduced into the same homeschooling lessons as the other Charming children, and that they had been introducing her to their kingdom through society balls and public charity events…

Come to think of it, why wasn't she asking questions yet? …Unless she kind of already knew and was waiting to see how she felt about it before announcing her assessment to everyone at the oddest of moments in that unnerving occasionally insightful way that she tended to go about big decisions like this.

Tiffany had always been (and always will) be an odd one in his opinion, but over the months that he had gotten to know her he had grown to appreciate her individuality more and more as his growing feelings towards her grew stronger. Until he just couldn't see his life without the petite blonde girl in it.

"Edward?" A voice croaked in tired confusion bringing the boy back to the real world. "When did you get here?"

"A while ago." Edward spoke lightly. "You were sleeping in so I decided to read over some stuff until you woke up."

"You lookin' at universities and stuff like that right?" Tiffany seemed to perk up at the thought.

"Maybe…" Edward hesitated, staring cautiously at the unopened packets and unsigned applications on the desk in front of him. "Not sure what I'd do there though."

"University is all about finding what path interests you the most." Tiffany tried. "You're sure to find something you enjoy doing, aside from trying to scare little girls with just your presence of course."

"Well considering that I was never successful in making you run away I don't really think that I can say that I've ever found something for me to occupy my time on the fairytale front." Edward smirked at the girl a little. "I don't think that university is for me anyway, there's plenty for me to do around here anyways, and besides that somebody needs to keep you from getting too bored being held up in bed most of the day."

"I'm not going anywhere you know." The girl reminded. "If that's one of the reasons why you're just staring blankly at those things instead of filling them out. The poison is gone from my body and I'm on the mend… I care too much about you to forget you or flake out on you just because of a little distance…" The girl blushed looking away. "I'm not going anywhere if you aren't. As long as you don't get bored of me because of distance and my age and… me being broken."

Edward's brain seemed to stall for a moment, this was the closest the two of them had gotten around to discussing the fact that they had proclaimed their love for one another just before Tiffany went out to fight the Evil Queen, it was the closest that the two of them had come to acknowledging the fact that they were… _something_. Some form of exclusive beyond-friendship relationship at the moment.

"…Tiffany." Edward swallowed. "I'm not the type of man who would leave someone so precious to me or string them along just because of a little distance. I-… gods I had thought that I'd _lost_ you, seeing you so ill was like the worst torture in the world for me… a-and if I was so far away I'd never stop worrying. It's useless to try for a higher education if I'd just miss classes in order to show up here to make sure that you hadn't slipped away while I was gone…"

"You can't be afraid for me forever." Tiffany huffed through her nose. "I won't allow it."

"Then don't fight me when I apply for a university close by." The boy pled. "The schools around here are more than sufficient for me to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life, and I can come and visit whenever I want."

The girl's face morphed into an annoyed pout. "You should be thinking about yourself-"

"I am, I am." Edward assured quickly. "This isn't one of those dumb movie plots that you're always making fun of where the couple decides to go to the same school and take the same classes only to have everything fall apart in a particularly spectacular fashion… We'll proceed with caution, I understand that we both don't want to rush into anything like two blind idiots in the hope that we'll turn into a perfect storybook romance and be all sickly sweet to each other all the time and the like."

"Yek." Tiffany stuck out her tongue in disgust at the very idea of her being so sickly sweet in love and calling anybody sweetie buns or honey poo in any tone other than degrading sarcasm, if at all.

"You aren't holding me back." Edward assured with vehemence. "If anything you are forcing me to think about my future outside of fairytales."

Tiffany eyed him suspiciously.

"Honest to gosh, cross my soul and all that jazz." Edward swore holding up his hands.

"You do realize that this thing we've got going on, it's not going to be normal right?" Tiffany asked just to be sure. "There's usually a formula that goes with all this but… I'm not… built for most of that kind of gooey love-mush stuff and acting like a lovesick dame. …Well I suppose you'd know better than anybody, since I've been tying you up and dragging you around for most of the time that I have known you."

"The fact that you work outside of the norm is part of the reason why I think that we have a good shot at this." Edward chuckled with a warm smile.

Edward knew that he was in too deep with this girl, who was too young and too different for the type of relationship most guys his age were looking for, and yet he couldn't find a single thing inside him that made him want to care, she was alive now and that was all that mattered.

XXX

"Do you think that Hunter's always going to cry every time he visits me?" Tiffany murmured as quietly as she could so that only Dexter and Edward could hear her. "Or are people as a whole all going to act like I'm dying again just because I'm confined to a chair until I learn how to walk on my own again? I love seeing all my old friends and classmates don't get me wrong but…" She trailed off not sure exactly how to voice her discomfort.

Hunter, Ashlynn, and many of their former schoolmates had been around to visit Tiffany periodically ever since the girl had her first two major surgeries and everyone could relax because she wasn't going to die of a cursed magical poisoning. A universal constant with many of the girl's visitors had been people either bursting into tears at the sight of her or the solemn attitudes of pity that always made them appear to be more like mourners than visitors to a living person.

"You were the worst injured out of everybody." Dexter explained eyeing Hunter who was some distance away by now, leaning heavily on his girlfriend as he and Ashlynn were being led by Darling and Daring out towards the front gates, the swiping motions he made to his face indicating that he was crying again. "…I guess that the best way to explain why everybody is treating you like a fragile doll is because of that whole; one casualty is a tragedy a hundred is a statistic thing that we've been learning from the tutors."

"They see me as something that could have happened to lots of other people if things went wrong." Tiffany sighed. "I'm a reminder to how much danger we were all in and how badly everyone could have ended up."

"That and they know you, they went to school with you, and saw you everyday." Dexter reminded. "And then everything went crazy really fast and now there's no school anymore, we've all been… displaced."

"…This doesn't make me like one of those holy mother statues does it? Something that people visit to remember what had been, right?" Tiffany pulls a face that is between horrified and nauseated.

"Oh no, no." Dexter assured.

"Well that's a relief-"

"They see you as the baby in the family that got a really big booboo." Dexter continued without apology.

" _Godsdangit_!" Tiffany hissed in protest. "Just wait until I start walking again, I'll show them who's the baby. I'm not even that short!"

Mood lightened (just as Dexter intended) Edward couldn't help but laugh because Tiffany was already beginning to get her usual pep back and he'd missed that in the past few months.

XXX

Whether she was conscious of it or not Tiffany was sliding into the life of royalty almost naturally Daring had observed to Edward one day. She still kept her quirky nature and her morbid humor but it was more precise now, more like that of one of those more rebellious Honorable Ladies who had taken a good look at life, gotten the joke, and was politely merry about the entire thing.

Edward had confessed that he had thought something similar but had almost felt that he had gone crazy because… well this was _Tiffany_ they were talking about. The same girl who used to tie him up and drag him around, and liked to play with wild garden spiders on her lunch hour. Not exactly a person one could see willingly turning into a princess.

That was when both boys came to the startling conclusion that Tiffany had always had the potential to thrive fantastically as a princess if given the right coaching, perhaps it was even a latent part of her personality because it wasn't normally that easy for people to adapt to the lifestyle and the politics without Ever After High being there to safely school future leaders properly on the subjects, more often than not fledgling royalty without a safe place to figure out how to balance being themselves along with being royalty often had them skirting around the edges of self-destruction and more often than not many people were known to jump gleefully over that edge.

But Tiffany knew exactly who she was; never found a reason to hide it, even now that she was being pampered and groomed to be a Charming Princess, but Tiffany knew how to appear adorable and charmingly innocent (granted it was a morbid charming innocence) and she knew how to play it to her favor so that she could get away with pretty much everything if she really set her mind to it. And she knew the boundaries of her comfort zone and what she could and could not do and she was smart enough to work within that knowledge like it was a base platform so that she could build up upon her life, dreams, and expectations instead of building unsteady supports outwards where she could not control her life as easily (or at all), this was partially why she was able to adapt to the princess lifestyle so well.

Edward, who knew Tiffany really well was highly disturbed by this revelation and suddenly had this overwhelming foreboding feeling that this particular Charming family's sense of _what was_ charming was slowly but surely going to change until Tiffany's particular brand of charm was going to be taught to future Charming princes and princesses the same way people teach different styles of martial arts.

Daring didn't have the same revelation (and Edward did not have the heart to warn the boy); he just found the whole thing adorable and further proof that Tiffany was destined to become a true Princess Charming when she grew up (Edward suspected that most of that enthusiasm came from the feeling of Daring getting to be a big brother all over again now that his other siblings had grown out of being constantly dotted on by the prince).

After that Edward never worried about Tiffany's personal charm clashing with her new family's… as odd as the whole concept was…

No he wasn't worried for Tiffany or the Charming's or anybody who had ever gone to school with Tiffany, they'd all adapt just fine to this new impending change.

The Non-Ever After High, high society on the other hand…

"Honorable Miss Muffet." A noblewoman of some sort (to be honest Edward had difficulties remembering all of the different titles and family lines) came up to Tiffany with an almost small mob of people trailing behind her at one of the Charming's seasonal fairytale balls where most fairytale families were in attendance along with a few influential non-fairytale families as a covert way to make contacts and unofficial deals with one another. "My friends and I are in such a pickle! You see here we are, surrounded by all these lovely maidens, and handsome heroes and we have no idea as to how to introduce ourselves for a… simply harmless dance, would you be a dear and please chose a dancing partner for us?"

There must have been something more to the request, something underline that Edward wasn't picking up on because Apple and Raven halted their conversation with him in favor of turning their alarmed gazes towards the wheelchair bound blonde, he could hear Lizzie growl something about bumping off a few well dressed pests, Both Hunter and Ashlynn grab each other's waists territorially, and the rest of the Charming siblings were trying their best not to drop into a run as they hurried over towards their new sister.

But Tiffany was eyeing the noblewoman with the same unimpressed look that she usually gave to people she was about to do something unexpected and would most likely reduce those same people to tears if she played them right (he knew this because once upon a time he used to get that look almost on a daily basis).

"Let's leave it up to chance then." Tiffany decided with a sweet little smile that held a razor edge to it as she produced from her clutch purse a stack of go fish cards she always carried around on her for entertainment purposes since she still wasn't able to walk well enough to find entertainment on her own. "Since this is an _innocent little dance_ why not decide dance partners the same way we used to in Nursery Rhyme school? We were all very innocent back then, I can guarantee it."

That seemed to throw the noblewoman off. "Oh dearie that's a very nice suggestion but I was thinking that perhaps you could call your acquaintances over and perhaps-"

"Introduce you? Banter a while and choose which fairytale dancing partner would be best for you fine Ladies and Lords based on the polite introductions?" Tiffany finished for the woman, her tiny smile slowly stretching wider in a way that almost reminded Edward of his mama once she caught sight of her favorite food. She began to shuffle her deck of cards, a little clumsily since her fingers were still in the process of learning how to work right again but nobody seemed to notice. "Yeah I could do that, but this way is much more fun! And besides, fairytale characters come in all sorts of personalities and backgrounds, you could learn quite a lot by having a surprise dancing partner."

The noblewoman very subtly flinched back (which was better concealed than the people behind her who were beginning to whisper worriedly amongst themselves), her eyes widened with a vague sense of horror, and Edward wondered if she had seen the almost predatory glint in Tiffany's eyes too.

"A perfect random distribution, those who have matching pairs of cards dance together, of course since this is just an " _innocent_ " dance, if somebody already has a dance partner and does not want to give them up they are allowed to decline any and all dance requests if the so desire." Tiffany listed out the rules as she rolled back to give herself some room.

Edward looked around, the Charming siblings had halted their path and were simply watching the situation unfold with baited breath, Apple and Lizzie were trying not to cackle outright beside a bewildered Raven, and Hunter and Ashlynn had apparently already deemed themselves safe, or had just simply lost interest, and were already dancing to the current tune that the live band was playing.

The noblewoman cleared her throat and visibly gathered herself up for damage control. "Honorable Miss Muffet-" She tried but Tiffany didn't give her a moment's chance.

"Get ready everybody!" Tiffany cheered with near maniac glee. "Throwing in one! Two!"

She didn't even have the decency to shout out _three_ before she tossed the cards into the air, the noblewoman and her posse were too busy staring at the airborne cards in horror to see Tiffany's lips move, Edward could feel the air above them, where the cards were, charge with magic for a brief moment before the small pieces of cardboard began zipping around the room, landing on the front chests of partygoers like name tags with symbols on them.

Just like what they used to do with the fairytale characters in Nursery Rhyme school.

At this point neither, Apple, Lizzie, or a quite a few other people, were able to keep their laughter completely in check. It blended in with the cheerful melody of the band but it was still there.

Without another word Tiffany turned her chair around and began humming to herself as she searched for the person matching the card displayed on her own chest, leaving behind a silently fuming and red faced noblewoman who was now at the mercy of the annoyed glares of her former mob being directed her way.

"I was worried there for a moment." Darling, Edward's dance partner (since there were more fairytale families than non-fairytale lots of people from Ever After got paired up together), confessed to him as they turned and spun across the floor. "We hadn't covered the different meanings behind introducing people to dance at certain balls or social events yet in her etiquette studies. Ooh the nerve of that Lady Champanelle! Her and her cousin Duke Danton are the worst at stirring up trouble for those who have yet to be introduced formerly into high society! That was a nice save Tiffany played, hopefully the likes of the Lady and Duke won't be attempting to show her up anytime soon after this, though I've gotta wonder whether or not Lizzie was the one who had taught her how to manipulate cards using academic magic, seeing as who the Lady's dancing partner is and by the way Lizzie keeps snickering to herself."

"Please forgive me if I seem highly in the dark about what just happened." Edward said as he glanced over to a sour looking Lady Champanelle dancing with an overjoyed Bog King. "Because, you know, I know _nothing_ about this stuff."

"They were trying to trap her into making a social fopaux and thus hindering her reputation amongst the Lords and Ladies." Darling sighed. "You see now that the Book of Legends is gone it's practically open season for suitors to try their luck marrying into fairytale houses to boost their prestige while also trying to control this sense of being able to marry who you want that had come about with the Rebellion at Ever After. To be introduced and have a dance with someone at one of these seasonal balls gives the potential suitor ample excuse to attempt to squirm their way into their dance partner's life in the hopes of wooing them, on top of that it is very presumptuous for a young Lady such as Tiffany, who has not yet been introduced into society, to be formally introducing anybody to dance at this particular event. Potentially earning her a rather embarrassing reputation to people like this."

Edward scrunched his face up, looking almost pained. "My head hurts just trying to imagine how complicated these things can be, why did you people design it this way?"

"To keep us from getting bored." Darling shrugged. "But I wonder if Tiffany actually knew what was going on… or if she was just being mischievous. She has said that she'd like to see how people would react to having to dance or interact with those outside their social standing…"

"Tiffany, back when her ex-parents held high hopes for her marrying some rich dude, used to read advanced maiden etiquette textbooks for both a good laugh and to be able to say that she had studied the philosophy first before deciding to turn her back on it." Edward revealed, the memory of the conversation he had with Daring a few days prior about Tiffany's surprising progress coming to the forefront of his mind. "She wanted to prove that there was nothing in being a maiden for her and that she had no business with being a maiden in the first place."

Darling raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"I don't think that she had a concrete long-term plan for escaping her parents grip." Edward mused not feeling surprised in the least that Tiffany was able to navigate this so easily. "But she's good at sensing that something's up and throwing obstacles down to impede them from using her as a money ticket, which was one of the reasons that they didn't communicate much while she was in high school, she's been a deliberate pain in their side since she was old enough to realize that the family staff weren't her parents but the stinky mean people that lived upstairs were. What she did to that Lady just now, that was practically child's play compared to the war she raged against her own parents as a little kid."

Darling glanced sharply over towards to where Tiffany was laughing with Apple and Lizzie about something or another, Raven and Daring were close by openly driving the point that this dance was indeed just as innocent as Tiffany had claimed by dancing with each other and making faces at some of the more scandalized royalty, fueling their mentioned date's and Tiffany's amusement even further.

"Those _sonsofbitches_." Darling breathed her eyes going as hard as diamonds as the full realization struck her.

"That's what mama used to say whenever she used to rescue little Tiffany and bring her home when her uncle wasn't able to pick her up." Edward paused. "It's what she still keeps saying come to think of it." He amended.

"I'm glad she had you and your parents around to help her." Darling murmured lowly in relief, her troubled gaze off to the side speaking of dark thoughts of what could've happened if the younger girl had been left to live without even a temporary escape from that horrible place. "I've read through the staff's testimonies and heard your mothers rant about it, but gods to actually see her when she's in action and to put it all into context…"

"It'll take a long time before she'll be able to see herself as a princess, perhaps even longer to fully realize that can be a positive thing and not a negative." Edward warned. "But you're her family now, a good, real family. She'll come around eventually so long as she's happy."

"That is if she'll ever forgive us for driving her birth parents away." Darling frowned, voicing the very thing that the entire Charming clan was holding it's breath about, waiting for the perceived inevitable fight up ahead to convince Tiffany to not hate them for everything that had gone down with the girl's parents.

Edward glanced over to Tiffany, offering her a smile when she caught his eye and smirked at him.

Tiffany was an inquisitive creature by nature; she would have asked if she had wanted to know… if she didn't know already.

"Tiffany's a natural at surprising people, who knows, it might all turn out better than you expect." Edward mused cryptically.

"Come on, lets go ask Raven and Apple about how their kid is doing, it's a shame that little Amelia is still too young to come to these things, that little girl's always a hoot to be around." Edward chuckled to Darling's questioning face, changing the subject completely before pulling her off the dance floor and towards the others.

XXX

Amelia Elenore King-Queen-White was the most adorable thing ever as far as her numerous uncles and aunties were concerned, the fact that she was sort of a living talisman for the victory won at the battle of Ever After High emphasized that sense of community adoration towards the little girl even further.

The kid was never going to have a normal childhood, that had been an option long taken away from her even when she had been a second old, and Edward wouldn't be surprised if the next generation of fairytale descendants would have equally odd childhoods.

"Your uncle Edward apologizes in advance for all the insanity you are going to have to endure in the upcoming future." Edward tells the baby sitting in Tiffany's lap sincerely.

"Her parents will make sure she gets cut some slack." Tiffany rolled her eyes and guides one of Edward's fingers for Amelia to gum. "And soon enough she will have to share the spotlight with all the siblings she's going to get if mommy-Apple has anything to say about it, and she'll have all of us hovering in the background like helpful sprites or something."

"That's what I'm worried about." Edward sighed; almost melting on the spot when the baby took his hand out of her mouth and hugged it with all her little might, chirping at him all the while. "Well that is until our classmates start producing their own little bundles of joy. I suppose a lot of the attention will be directed more towards the children of the "generation that lived "or some title equally as noble."

Tiffany looked down at the baby in her lap for a long moment; at nearly one-years-old Amelia had grown out her hair a fair bit, to the point where she had a healthy crop of thick blonde neck-length hair that sort of stuck up in all directions if it had been somehow left without Apple or the nursemaid's studious efforts to control the unruly mop. Apple often fondly bemoaned the fact that while Amelia had inherited Apple-mommy's blonde hair and her great-grandmother's lovely red-streaked coloring, the only thing in regards to hair that she had inherited from Raven-mama was the nearly unmanageable thickness of it. Both mothers prayed that their girl kept her fascinated interest with water because it took a long time to wash that hair now, and it would just keep getting more difficult as the hair grew (and the horror stories of how Raven used to screech and thrash when she had to have a bath at that age was enough to make both women pale considerably).

Amelia tilted her head back to meet the gaze of her aunt, a string of little bird-like cooing sounds came out as she baby stared her big violet eyes up at the larger blonde.

"Gods, maybe we should start hinting to Ashlynn and Hunter to start thinking about getting busy, it's not fair to leave this little one to have to bear the label; "Child of the Generation That Lived" along with "The Fairytale Miracle Baby" it's just not right."

"I shall leave that conversation with them in your capable hands." Edward told the other sagely before turning his attention back to the baby. "I wonder how well she's walking, Raven told me a little while before the meeting that she and Apple are worried that she's not getting enough practice because the grandparents and all her aunts and uncles just pick her up and pack her around at every given opportunity."

" _Roll_ her around in my case." Tiffany grinned cheekily.

Before either could comment further Dexter came jogging towards them from down the marble hallway that led out to the west wing's smaller courtyard where Tiffany and Edward were.

"Hey there sweetie." Dexter cooed to the baby, putting a towel over his shoulder before accepting the drooly child from Tiffany.

"Aw Dexie, I didn't know that you saw me in that light." Edward teased.

"Hello to you too Eddie." Dexter snorted.

"How did it go?" Tiffany asked.

"Raven and Apple are seriously contemplating that maybe we should celebrate Amelia's half-birthday as her regular birthday instead of putting her through having to share a birthday with the anniversary of the Battle of Ever After High." Dexter informed. "That and we've decided on a place in Wonderland to hold the public event with all the parades and people cheering in the streets as speeches are handed out, but we've also decided to hold a private reunion for all our old classmates on a different day."

"Hard to believe that it's been almost a year already." Edward huffed out standing up and looking at the sky.

"Feels like it all went down yesterday sometimes." Tiffany admitted with a tired face that had stretched into a grimace. "Just two months away huh. It's going to get crazy in Wonderland once the party starts."

"They're super excited about it over there apparently." Dexter cooed to a baby Amelia. "It's going to be even more interesting next year because we've got all the formerly poisoned worlds already vying for the next celebration to happen in their domain. The arguments for it are predicted to get rather ugly…"

"Put a bunch of names in a basket and have Amelia pick it out, can't get much more unbiased than that, I'm sure that the general public will just eat that video clip up no problem." Tiffany suggested with a dismissive wave of a hand. As if the solution to any potential political backlash should have been obvious.

Edward broke out laughing because, _damn_ , that would be cute as hell.

Dexter's eyes seemed to light up at the idea. "We can probably combine Amelia's scheduled appearance with her picking out where to have the next main anniversary celebration…" he continued to mumble on to himself making Amelia giggle at his antics.

"Hey Dexter! Stop hogging my niece! Some of us want to play with her too!" Daring boomed as he, the girl's parents, Darling and Briar stepped out into the courtyard.

Edward shared a soft smile with Tiffany. Time was moving on and things were looking up.


End file.
